CO2 emissions. When stored, can they be useful?

illuminatus (65)in #steemstem • 7 years ago (edited)

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These days, almost everyone is aware about the concept of climate change. When most people hear anything about "greenhouse gases", what comes to their mind is that these greenhouse gases are some evil forces trying to make our darling planet into "hell fire". Most people seem oblivious to the fact that in the right quantities, these gases are actually essential to our survival. If these gases were to somehow be completely removed, the temperature on the Earth's surface will plunge to an average of about -18 °C.

We humans have always sought to improve our standard of living and have improved our technologies over the ages. The technological improvement resulted in the Industrial Revolution. Through various activities such as agricultural practises, burning of fossil fuel, etc, we have succeeded in increasing the amount of carbon present in the atmosphere to almost double the amount it was before the start of the Industrial Revolution, 270 years ago.

While anthropogenic activities result in the release of various greenhouse gases, the gas which is held as the major culprit responsible for climate change is carbondioxide (CO2). Although produced in nature through processes such as respiration, volcanic eruptions, etc, CO2 is also emitted as a result of various human activities such as deforestation, change in land use, agriculture, burning of fossil fuel, etc. The carbon being emitted is resulting in global warming and making several parties concerned and devising several means to battle this problem. Several plans are in place to reduce the amount of CO2 being emitted and methods have been devised to capture the carbon and store it efficiently.

CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE

This refers to the process by which carbon is captured from sites where it is produced in large quantities and taken to places where it can be stored efficiently (mostly in geological formations) so as to prevent the release of this carbon into the atmosphere.

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Nothing is useless and even as harmful as the CO2 produced by various human activities may seem, when captured and stored, it can be used for several purposes which include:

Enhanced Oil Recovery: This refers to techniques which are employed so as to increase the yield of oil that can be extracted from oil fields, mostly matured oil fields to amounts which exceed that which can be obtained by employing traditional methods. Enhanced Oil Recovery involves the injection of CO2 into an oil field, where it mixes with the oil, thereby causing it to swell and have a reduced viscosity which aids in the increase or maintenance of the pressure in the reservoir.

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Preservation And Packaging Of Food: As a result of the ability of CO2 to prevent or reduce the growth of bacteria that cause food to spoil, it is widely employed in the packaging of food items so as to increase their shelve lives.
Treatment of Bauxite Residue: When Alumina is extracted from bauxite ore, a bauxite residue slurry (red mud) which is highly alkaline is formed. To partially neutralize the red mud, concentrated CO2 is introduced into it, thereby reducing the costs of disposal, make it easier to manage and also limit its potential environmental impact. During the process of neutralization, the CO2 is usually converted into carbonates. The product retains a low level of alkalinity and can be used in the treatment of acidic soil samples.